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AppHelp

You may be reading this because you are one of the nearly 3.5 million Visual Basic programmers in the world who have made Visual Basic the most popular Windows programming language in history.

Windows Forms is the platform for classic Microsoft Windows application development. Providing help for your application is one of the things you should not skip. Use the appropriate type of help that is tailored to the needs of your application. It is sometimes better to create and use HTMLHelp files (CHM), but sometimes it is sufficient to just have pop-up help or ToolTips.

The examples will give you some ideas on how to build a help system in .NET. Building help systems under the .NET Framework with VS.NET is different than building help systems with the old Visual Studio 6.0.

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Create tooltip help for VB.net controls

Windows Forms supports ToolTip Help, which can be used to provide targeted help for some or all controls within Windows Forms. The ToolTip component can be used to display a short special message.

Tooltip AppHelp

To support ToolTip Help in your application, you must use the ToolTip component, which can be found in the Toolbox under Windows Forms. Drag a ToolTip component from the Toolbox to your form. It is a component instead of a control, so after dragging it onto your form it will sit at the bottom of the component frame. This component gives each control on the form a new property called ToolTip on tipExample1.

Tooltip AppHelp

The Windows Forms ToolTip component has several features that you can set. The ToolTip component can be configured so that there is a delay before the ToolTip text is displayed.

Tooltip AppHelp

You must enter the text to be displayed in the ToolTip property of each individual control (e.g. txtInput) or specify it by coding it directly. The ToolTip text is not displayed when controls are grayed out.

Tooltip AppHelp

Tooltip code example

''' <summary>
''' Set up tooltip information for controls.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>ToolTipTitle is a category related to the icon and to use only once.</remarks>
Private Sub GetTooltipText()
    Dim tt As New ToolTip

    With tt
        .AutomaticDelay = 0
        .AutoPopDelay = 10000   ' How long the ToolTip remains visible
        .InitialDelay = 50      ' Time before the initial Tooltip will show
        .ReshowDelay = 250      ' How much time passes before the next ToolTip will show

        .IsBalloon = True
        .ToolTipTitle = "Info"            ' Title next to the icon
        .ToolTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Info   ' Set an ICON if required

        ' Set up the ToolTip text for the controls.
        .SetToolTip(Me.lblInput, "This is a label for the input field.")
        .SetToolTip(Me.txtInput, "Please enter your first name.")
        .SetToolTip(Me.btnExecute, "Clicking this button generates a message for you.")
    End With

End Sub